Last week's poll: How should employers overcome absenteeism?

By way of a recap, Make UK recently published its Absence Benchmark, which reports annually on the days missed by employees due to sickness. It found that the overall absence rate increased slightly in 2018 to 2.3 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent in the previous year.

With employers keen to increase productivity, how exactly should they work toward reducing sickness absence and maintaining the wellbeing of employees?

Just over a quarter of respondents (26 per cent) opted for personalised wellbeing packages, followed by 17 per cent who thought line managers should be trained in identifying the signs of impending health issues. Eleven per cent of respondents thought regular health checks could help bring down absenteeism, and four per cent agreed that a 24/7 GP phone line would be of most benefit. Forty-two per cent went for the weekly ‘none of the above’ option, including Peter Spence and Paul Wickens who said that all the options given are applicable to workplace wellbeing.